Ivanov leads Macedonian polls by wide margin
SKOPJE, Macedonia (AP) — Macedonian president Gjorge Ivanov is leading in the country's presidential election, but will require a runoff to see whether he can win a second five-year term.
According to results posted on the state election commission web site Sunday, Ivanov leads his closest rival, Stevo Pendarovski, 51.62 percent to 37.52 percent, with 98.92 percent of the votes counted. Turnout was 48.72 percent of registered voters.
Four candidates were running for the largely ceremonial post. A runoff will take place April 27 among the top two finishers if no candidate wins a majority
Ethnic Albanian voters largely boycotted the presidential election, Macedonia's fifth since the Balkan country gained independence following the breakup of former Yugoslavia in 1991.
Ethnic Albanians, who make up one quarter of the country's population, refrained from taking part in the western and northern parts of the country, where they are the majority. The ethnic Albanian Democratic for Integrations party, or DUI, a junior partner in the government, recommended that voters stay home after the ruling VMRO-DPMNE party refused to their demands for a joint candidate.
The election for president is seen as a barometer of the fortunes of the VMRO-DPMNE ahead of general elections later this month. All the major parties have based their campaigns around having Macedonia join Western organizations like the European Union and NATO, but they differ on how those goals can be achieved.
Ivanov, 53, is backed by the conservative VMRO-DPMNE, while Pendarovski, 51, is backed by the main opposition Social-Democrats.
"VMRO-DPMNE and Gjorge Ivanov have won!" senior party official Vlatko Gjorcev said before a cheering crowd at party headquarters late Sunday.
Ivanov himself later addressed the crowd.
"This gives me strength for reforms and the future," he said. "The people have given the answer today."
"The battle is not over," Pendarovski told his own supporters.
Nearly 1.8 million voters were eligible to cast their ballots at some 3,500 polling stations.
No major incidents were reported. But while the VMRO-DPMNE said the election was "peaceful, free and fair," Social-Democrats leader Zoran Zaev accused the conservative government of "stealing votes," insisting that "the first round the will of the people was not represented."
Social-Democrats vice president Radmnila Sekjerinska accused Amdi Bajram, a leader of a party representing the Roma minority, of physically attacking her at one poll station in a Roma school, where she was assigned as observer. Bajram denied the attack.
Civic organization MOST, which had 580 observers deployed all over the country, said a "number of irregularities" were reported, such as family voting.
